Hello Dearies!
How did everyone like 2x17?
Personally, I thought it was kinda boring but don't ya'll find every episode without Rumbelle lacking?
Chapter 24
He became overly protective of Belle now that she was carrying his child.
He had so many enemies.
After all, he was a difficult man to love….
He wanted to keep her close to him, so he began sleeping with her at night.
He hadn't slept in centuries, but he longed to be near her.
Sometimes he didn't sleep, he just watched her.
He watched the way her bosom rose and fell with each breath, the way her silky nightgown molded around her blossoming figure.
He loved to bury his nose in her hair and just breathe her in.
He kept one of her handkerchiefs hidden on the inside of his waistcoat at all times so he would never lose that scent.
He hoped their daughter would smell like that.
After he had thrown her out, he often would times find himself wandering into her abandoned chambers to file through her gowns, holding them to his nose just to get a faint trace of what it had once felt like to be with her.
It was too early to feel the baby in her womb, but he knew she was there.
Yet, Rumplestiltskin dreaded the delivery.
He searched through his massive collection of spell books and potions for anything that could dull pain or either eliminates it completely, but found nothing quite sufficient enough for Belle.
She had borne enough pain and this was something he wanted to save her from.
It was his fault…
He hadn't been there when Milah delivered, but she had told him of how excruciating the pain had been, so awful in fact, the midwife had given her a leather strap to bite on when the labor pains came.
She had described it as, "being ripped in two," and Rumplestiltskin did not want Belle to feel that horrible pain.
He knew women could also die from childbirth; it wasn't uncommon to bleed to death after birth.
That worried him very much.
The very thought of being without Belle grieved him terribly.
He would not lose her now that he had finally found her….
He hated himself for being so cruel to her.
He had even contemplated giving his dagger unto her keeping in hopes of compensating for his coarseness.
Anything for her….anything for Belle….
Nowadays his thoughts were always of Belle, just as they had been in the beginning but now with more ferocity.
His only focus was protecting his happily ever after, not deal making.
When his thoughts were not of Belle, which was rare, he always came back to benevolent King Maurice and the good people of his Kingdom.
Whom Belle saved…
Revenge polluted his blood turning it hot and thick under his impenetrable hide; he grew his nails and filed them down into sharp points ready for tearing away at Maurice's fat neck.
At night, as he held Belle's sleeping body, he planned the siege painstakingly in his mind.
He would save Maurice for last….
He thought of the group of soldiers who beat Belle and the peasants who mocked her.
He burned for vengeance.
She wasn't a whore; she was their sacrifice to the ugly, evil Beast.
And she cowed him.
She was an amazing woman who never ceased to amaze him.
"When did you realize that you loved me?"
Belle lay with her back against his chest as he nuzzled into her freshly washed hair.
Always…
"When you tripped over that scrap of golden ball gown and nearly killed yourself in an attempt to scrub the staircase to a mirror shine."
He ran his sharp nails up her arm, careful not to knick the petal soft skin.
"I'd never been so...terrified for someone's life other than my own until that day."
"You made me wear that dress until I was sure it would rot right off of my body." She giggled.
"I was testing you." He whispered into her hair.
"I wanted to see if you were really as selfless, brave, and true as you seemed."
His hand cupped her neck and a planted a chaste kiss to her right cheek.
She smelled like roses….
"Well was I?" she said breathlessly as he caressed her neck.
"You were consummate in your crusade against vanity," he nibbled lightly at her ear and continued, "You never once complained, not even when the combination of that gown and slippery marble stairs caused you a broken ankle."
Belle pushed herself against him, molding her backside into his hips.
"I never knew you cared."
"Why do you think you have a dressing room full of gowns my dear?"
Rumplestiltskin moved from her ear to the exposed column of her neck and sucked at the creamy skin offered to him.
Belle's eyelids fluttered with pleasure as he worshipped her neck, leaving several bright red marks that would turn to bruises by the morning.
"I tried so hard to keep my emotions veiled; I was neither here nor there with you and when you were hurt I tried to keep my concern vague, but within I was raging."
"You healed me magically..."
Her words drifted into silence as he turned her carefully to face him and shifted atop her.
"Can it be enough without the kiss?" he asked.
Belle smiled sadly and ran her fingers through his curls, "Do you think it can?"
"I think it shall always be there between us like a great divide, but one day Belle, I will kiss you. I will let you drain the evil from my soul and wipe the darkness from my heart."
He stroked her thighs entreatingly with his nails, "But I need my power for just a while longer."
"What is your obsession with power?" she moaned as he kissed his way down her throat to her bosom.
"One day," he whispered against her silk covered breast, "I will tell you."
He slipped the two fragile lace straps from her perfectly rounded shoulders and stroked the side of her face.
"I will tell you everything."